


Golden Slumbers

by regular_john



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Pirate, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Captain Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Child Isabel Magnolia, Crying, F/M, Hugs, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Merperson Eren Yeager, Past Character Death, Pirate Levi Ackerman, Referenced Heterosexual Relationship, Sad with a Happy Ending, Single Parent Levi Ackerman, they're shy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 06:20:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30051207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/regular_john/pseuds/regular_john
Summary: As an attempt to cheer up his crew, a drunken Levi dives head-first into the sea at the first sign of glittering gold. He does not expect, however, to come face-to-face with a breathtaking mermaid.
Relationships: Levi Ackerman & Eren Yeager, Levi Ackerman/Eren Yeager
Comments: 8
Kudos: 25





	Golden Slumbers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [losticarus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/losticarus/gifts).



> aight so its set mid to late 18th century like POTC, hope that clears up some stuff  
> also I wrote this with very little planning and all in one go, so apologies if its mildly incoherent in places. I just had to get this out.

Captain Levi sat on the ledge of the quarterdeck, the deck directly above his cabin, and did what he usually ended up doing on quiet nights while the rest of the crew slept. He drank. The boat swayed gently on the waves, and at that time of night the only noise was the waves themselves as well as his ship creaking and groaning beneath him. 

He focused all his attention upon the moon and its reflection on the water from where he was sitting, bringing the cool glass bottle to his lips again and having a swig of his rum. 

“You’re drinking again, captain.” A voice said behind him.

The captain nodded slowly at the voice, not even bothering to turn knowing that all he would see would be Hange’s concerned face that they always pulled when they caught him doing this. 

“Why?” They pestered.

Levi sighed, gently placing the bottle between his clothed thighs. “Helps to forget.” He sighed, tracing his finger gently around the bottle. 

“That doesn’t work, Levi. We’ve had this discussion countless times, and you know it never works. Drinking doesn’t bring back-”

“There should be a captain in there somewhere.” He stated, no real malice behind his words. 

“My sincerest apologies, captain.”

Levi sighed and span his head to give his friend a quick glance, “You’re dismissed. Make sure no one drowns.”

“Yes captain.” They replied, offering a brief half-arsed salute before turning to check on the crew in their sleeping quarters. He didn’t enjoy sending his friend away, but he wasn’t particularly in the mood for a lecture that night. 

He shifted himself back to stare at the moon, cringing at the hard floor underneath him, and braced his arms behind him. Looking up at the moon, memories of sitting in the exact same position not too long ago crashed into his mind, his small daughter sitting in between his legs looking up at the moon with a face-splitting smile taking up all her features. 

Her favourite fable had always been the story of the moon on All Hallows Eve, one that she asked him to tell her almost every night they sat and looked up at the sky together. The story was a myth said to be told by mermaids, and went that on All Hallows Eve, the curse of an ancient witch took hold of the moon. If pirates were caught out at night outdoors, they would be cursed to live amongst the undead that rise every year on that night. 

“Is that why every Hallows Eve we have a party?” She’d ask, knowing the answer by now but asking it all the same, making it a tradition of her own. 

Levi would laugh a soft laugh, and run a hand through her hair as a show of his affection. “It wasn’t always like that, little one, we used to huddle around one another and sleep before the sun even touched the horizon, we were so scared. Now we barricade the doors and try to make it an exciting affair for everyone.” 

She would always look up at him here, the stars reflecting in her eyes as if tiny galaxies resided in them, and speak the words that now broke his heart. “That sounds fun, daddy.”

“Yeah…” he whispered, looking up at the moon feeling a distinct lack of a body between his legs. “It does.” 

His daughter had been born of a woman he hadn’t intended to impregnate, an evening of drunken mistakes taking over both parties. When he found out about her pregnancy, he went out of his way to look after her. She stayed on the ship for the duration, the crew treating her with every kindness and giving her the love they would give to their own. Levi even thought he could one day grow to love the woman as a husband would, but once she had given birth she announced that the pirate life was not for her. 

She didn’t want their child, and so Levi happily took complete guardianship over the baby. At first it was difficult, but the crew helped every step of the way in raising his little girl in the way they all agreed was perfect. There wasn’t a sight he loved more than his daughter’s red hair rushing around their ship, the sound of her giggling when they would play games together, the way she snored in her sleep light enough to be calming. 

The day he lost her was the first time their ship had been raided since her birth. He’d ensured she was safe in the captain’s quarters in their bed, and had stationed himself in front of the door with a pistol in one hand and a dagger in the other. His eyes blazed with rage, no one was getting past him, no one was going to get to his daughter. 

At the end of the battle, however, when he had stopped a large number of people getting past, came the worst moment of all. He opened the door and found the windows leading to the open sea wide open, and not far from the windows he found the small body of his daughter surrounded by her blood. 

Levi had never felt pain like that before. He had run to be by her side, falling to his knees and openly allowing tears to fall as he tried to tend to her wounds, searching her face for something- anything. He noticed she was missing her dagger, meaning it had been stolen or she had fought herself. He also noticed she was missing a shoe, a small thing that seemed to make the pain even worse. Such a small thing, that had such a devastating impact. 

“Daddy-” She croaked out, her face cringing with pain. 

All the man could do was look into her eyes, and watch the light fade. 

Levi staggered up from his sitting position and wobbled to the front of the ship before sitting down. He briefly looked down at the windows to his quarters and sighed before looking back out to the tea, the silvery reflection doing nothing but remind him of his daughter. 

He watched the light on the ocean, twinkling like the stars in his daughter's eyes. He stayed like that for a few moments, before a different light caught his eye. He focused his eyes and noticed, _yes_ , there was a golden colour in the sea. 

He moved the bottle of rum from his lap to the deck and leaned closer off the shop to get a better look, refusing at all costs to invest in a pair of spectacles. Despite being a good few miles from any land, there was indeed something shining a sparkly gold in the water. 

_Treasure?_ The captain thought, _shit- I’m not that bothered by treasure, but I know the crew miss...they need cheering up. What harm can be done?_

The raven removed his dark jacket and linen shirt, closely followed by his boots and cotton socks. He carelessly threw them onto the deck and snatched his dagger from its sheath. He took one little glance at himself, feeling silly for wearing nothing but his ankle length dark trousers, but deciding in his state that this was fine. He held the dagger in his mouth and dove into the water. 

The coolness of the water was a brief shock, but after years of living at sea he quickly became accustomed to it. He spun around a few times, the speed of his spinning disorientating himself alongside the salt water stinging his eyes. _I didn’t think this through_. 

He debated going back to the ship when, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something twinkling gold. He spun quickly, yet again with very little thought on his part, and found himself staring at something he did not quite expect to see. 

Floating in front of him was a mermaid- no, merMAN with a golden sparkling tail littered with turquoise-looking gems and patterns staring directly at him. The sepia-haired man held his hands over his mouth in apparent surprise, a harsh-pink dusting littering his cheeks. 

Levi raised his eyebrows in surprise, and stupidly opened his mouth allowing the knife to fall and slowly rise towards the surface. Both men watched as it rose, and rushed to be the first to collect it, the merman coming out victorious. 

He handed the dagger to Levi, the pirate nodding and placing the dagger back into its holding place before quickly swimming to the surface, allowing himself a brief moment to collect air before rushing back down; praying the man was still there. To his surprise, and quiet delight, the mermaid hadn’t moved from his position in the water, his hands now by his side as he looked over at Levi with increasing interest. 

The pirate copied the action without necessarily intending to, raking his eyes up and down the man’s body, finding his eyes widening as he found the man’s body to be beautiful. The mermaid noticed bubbles floating away from Levi’s face and raised his eyebrows as if remembering something, and lifted a lazy finger. 

To Levi’s surprise, this small action created a bubble around his head, allowing him to breath as he normally would and somehow immediately drying his hair. 

The mermaid grinned back at him, Levi taking the opportunity of his extra oxygenated clarity to stare at his long chocolate hair floating around his well-sculpted face, notice the light golden swirls adorning his honey chest, notice his tail glittering in more detail. The beautiful creature smiled and bobbed his head oddly, as if he were nervously trying to communicate. 

Levi didn’t know why, out of all the things he could possibly be feeling in that moment, he felt the way he did. Shocked at seeing a real mermaid, after years of hearing supposed myths? Annoyance that this man was not the treasure his crew were secretly wishing for? Surprise that the mermaid was a male, and an attractive one at that? How he felt was foreign to him, he felt shy, and at the same time he felt that the only thing worth his time was to attempt communicating with the beautiful creature. 

“Hi.” Levi blurted, cursing his drunken state giving him neither grace nor decorum when engaging in conversation. 

The mermaid’s grin seemed to double in size, his annoyingly perfect mouth opening to speak. “I’m so glad you speak English.” 

The pirate’s eyes blew wide in shock, at hearing his velvety voice or that they shared a language he did not know. “What?” 

“I taught myself English, I was hoping for an occasion such as this.” 

The raven drew his eyebrows together in slight confusion, “What?” He repeated, mentally cursing himself yet again for appearing how he did. 

“I’ve always wanted to speak to a human, so I taught myself English. I’m so glad we share a language, sir, so I can communicate with you.”

Levi nodded, distracting himself from the blush appearing on his cheeks at being called ‘sir’ by kicking his feet in a steady rhythm, keeping himself afloat. “I’m captain Levi.” 

“A captain, no less! What an honour, I’m Eren.” He reached out his hand as if to shake Levi’s, and the captain copied the notion. He was surprised when the mermaid gently caressed his hand along the man's forearm before retracting his hand altogether, _a mermaid custom surely_. 

“Just Eren?” He questioned. 

“Yes, I’m not a prince or anything.”

“I don’t mean like that, brat.” He said, softening his voice when he realized it had come out harshly. “I mean...I don’t know, I thought mermaids had cool titles ‘n shit.” 

“A myth. I’m just Eren.” The mermaid replied, 

“Okay...just Eren…” The captain started, his arms and legs beginning to tire slightly at the constant strain of trying to keep at the mermaid’s level. “Can you breathe above water?” He asked, partially out of a general curiosity he was sure his friend would be interested to know, but mainly for personal gain so that he could comfortably continue talking to the mermaid. 

Typically, he wouldn’t care for idle conversation. Yet, upon hearing the beautiful creature talk to him, his gorgeous sea-green eyes glowing vibrantly showing his interest in their small conversation was as high as Levi’s...it was addicting talking to him. 

The mermaid grinned, “yes I can, Captain Levi.” He briefly closed his eyes, and then as quickly as he had closed them opened them again to gaze at the other man. “I actually know a place.”

Without asking, the mermaid grabbed Levi’s arm causing the captain to jolt in surprise, yet calm immediately. He wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol’s influence, or the fact that the mermaid he was talking to was the most beautiful thing he had gazed upon in his entire life, he didn’t care if he was dragged. 

Eren swam at speed, Levi finding himself gripping onto his arm a whole lot tighter due to the sheer speed the man was travelling, his face calm as if this was a common occurrence. After a few surprising moments of intense speed, Levi grew accustomed to their speed and started to enjoy it a bit. 

He almost asked the mermaid to speed up, when they eventually reached the point he stopped swimming, breaking to the surface and finding themselves inside a sea cave. The interior had been worn away after years of being so close to the sea, leaving a perfect domed roof with scattered deep water and rock pools underneath, making for the perfect place to stop. Levi clambered up onto some rocks, next to a rock pool that Eren swam into and did a few little laps in before deciding it was good enough. 

“I thought you were gold.” Levi murmured, his eyes still fixated on the glowing tail of the mermaid. 

“You did?” He questioned, his voice as beautiful as it had been underwater despite some of the myths. 

“Honestly, I dived in because I thought you were treasure.”

The mermaid snorted with laughter, swimming up to the ledge of the rocks to rest his arms on the surface. “Yeah well, hence the purpose of having a golden tail. The female-identifying mermaids have more use for it, they’ve the ones that typically try to lure in sailors due to their rearing process.” 

“Were you trying to lure _me_ in?” 

“No, I was not.” The mermaid answered defensively, “I was looking at your ship, then…” 

“Then...what?” 

“I saw you sitting on the front bit, so I started to look at you. You’re quite pretty in the moonlight, captain. Like one of us but...inverted. We’re colourful and you’re not.” 

“You think I’m pretty?” He asked, briefly annoyed but immediately coming to like the idea, wiggling his eyebrows in a teasing manner.

“I didn’t mean! Okay well...no I didn’t...I-” 

“It’s alright, Eren. I’m sorry, please continue.”

The mermaid flushed slightly at being called his name by the human, but carried on talking regardless. “I was looking at you, and then all of a sudden you were stripping yourself and diving in!” He emphasised the situation with extravagant hand gestures, “And here we are.” 

The pirate nodded in confirmation, still not taking his eyes off of the beautiful face of the mermaid. 

“Why did you look so sad?” 

Levi almost choked on the air at the suddenness of the question, moving his gaze to the ceiling of the cave. “What do you mean?” 

“You were sat looking sad, staring at the moon, whispering to yourself and drinking some foul liquid-” 

“Rum”

“Drinking...looking at the moon.” 

“My daughter- she was so interested in the moon.” He replied, keeping his gaze set on the cave and trying with every ounce of his being to keep his voice steady. 

“Is she not anymore?” 

The pirate moved his gaze to the mermaid, giving him a pointed look, the other man tilting his head in visible confusion, clearly not understanding. “She died, just Eren. My Izzy...So the moon bears its own special significance to me I suppose.” 

The mermaid made a sort of choked noise, something between a cry of pain and a sob of sadness. He looked up at the pirate with a deeply sad expression on his face. “I’m so sorry...that must’ve been so hard on you and your mate.”

“My mate?” 

“Yes...the other member of your eternal union. I don’t want to assume anything but I’m pretty certain that cisgender human males cannot conceive.”

“...my eternal union?” Levi questioned again, a face of merged confusion and surprise replacing the prior one of pain. 

“You humans don’t have eternal unions?” 

“Not really, the woman who gave birth to my daughter left not long after the birth, she said she didn’t want to live the life of a pirate with the child of a pirate.”

“That’s awful!” The mermaid yelped, his tail splashing behind him as if to dramatise the statement. 

“Not really...she was pretty miserable. I had much more fun caring for my daughter alone with my crew-” The crew, he suddenly thought, if anyone finds my clothes they’ll surely believe I’ve done the worst. He started to stand up, “I should get back to them soon actually.” 

“WAIT!” The mermaid screamed, holding his tanned webbed hands up in protest. 

“...what?” 

“Watch the sunrise with me.” The mermaid blurted, his emerald eyes baring deep into Levi. 

“What?”

“I love watching the sunrise...please watch it with me.”

This sounds mildly romantic, the captain thought. “It’s at least an hour away.” The pirate said after taking a quick glance at the sky. 

“What does that mean?” 

“The sunrise...umm it's not quite ready yet.” He replied, not quite sure how to summarise periods of time to the creature. 

The mermaid nodded in understanding, and briefly ducked his head underwater before popping up again, his long hair every time timing up dry as if he had not been under water. “Stay until then?” 

“...okay.” The pirate sat back down into his previous position on the rocky floor, staring back up again at the beautiful roof of the cave. He shifted his gaze over to the mermaid, and saw the man staring intently at his torso. 

“...do you like them?” He asked, smiling softly. 

“What!?” The mermaid exclaimed, surprised to get caught in the act of staring. 

The human chuckled slightly before replying, “My tattoos.”

“The lines on your skin...what do they mean? Are all humans born with them?”

“No, they’re tattoos. It’s ink I’ve had on my skin. I don’t have that many, just important ones.”

“What do they mean?”

Levi glanced down at this chest, first pointing to his wrist, “The rope around my wrist is because I used to be a deckhand under my uncle’s crew,” he pointed to his bicep, “This here swallow represents a lost comrade.” Levi moved his finger to point to the tattoo over his heart, “I have a swallow over my heart for her and-” he finally pointed to the anchor on the alternate side of this chest, “I have an anchor here because I recently crossed and came back from the atlantic.” 

“Wow…” 

“Yeah.” Levi replied, not really sure where to go from there, opting to stare at the beautiful mermaid a bit more, the man currently staring intently at his chest. 

He cleared his throat and nodded, “Can I show you something?” He asked, forcing his gaze to look away from the man’s chest to his face. 

Levi nodded, and was beckoned into the pool. Once submerged, the mermaid took ahold of his hand this time, making the pirate blush a bit. _He’s a man, but he’s so beautiful and I can’t stop looking at him….He likes me back? He said I was pretty_. 

The two men started their swim, the mermaid waving his finger in the general direction of Levi forming the same bubble around his face to allow him to breathe. _I wonder how he does that, is it some kind of mermaid magic?_

They continued their descent down for what felt like hours, their surroundings steadily growing darker and darker before they reached a small abandoned ship. It looked very old, sea moss entirely covering the boat small enough to bed 2 at a push, but Eren dragged the pirate inside regardless. 

The inside of the boat at first glance seemed to be filled with junk, but at a closer glance it was clear that all the objects were treasured human-related objects held by the mermaid. Along the floor there was a line of rocks, multiple necklaces and other pieces of jewelry hanging from the ceiling like wind chimes, and on a shelf over a counter there appeared to be a row of books. 

“How are there books?” The pirate questioned, the obvious thought of water not surviving very long in water crossing his mind. 

“Those are mermaid books, we copied the idea from your human books. They’re a similar kind of thing, but made with stone and inscribed with mermaid runes instead of your weird alphabet things.”

Levi hummed, understanding the idea, and continued to swim around the boat and explore to the sheer delight of the mermaid. After a little while he came across a small pile of shoes. He raised an eyebrow and looked back at the mermaid, his questioning expression saying everything. 

“I have no use for them...obviously-” The mermaid said, swishing his tail for effect, making the pirate chuckle. “But I find them really interesting.”

The pirate nodded and turned back around, looking through the shoes idly to see if there were any that might fit him out of curiosity. He froze his searching upon coming across a certain shoe, however, the world seeming to spin a little slower. 

Inside Eren’s pile of shoes, right at the bottom, rested a tiny dark leather boot with a brass buckle. A shoe Levi had an identical copy of sitting on his desk, a shoe that served as a reminder of his inability to look after his child. He felt an uncomfortable lump forming in his throat, vaguely aware of the mermaid chattering behind him and giggling about something to himself. Levi remained frozen, holding the little shoe delicately in his hand and staring at it intently. 

“What’s wrong, captain?” The voice cut through Levi’s thoughts. He remained motionless, however, continuing to stare intently at the shoe. 

Eren swam over, taking a moment to glance between the shoe and Levi before the penny seemed to drop. His daughter. The mermaid gently reached out a hand and rubbed Levi’s back as softly as he could, the human stiffening at the touch slightly before relaxing. 

He turned around to look up at Eren with glassy eyes. The mermaid stared back with sympathetic eyes, smiling a sad smile over at the man. Levi almost fell into the hug, sobbing into the man’s bare chest while Eren cooed gently into his ear, telling him everything was going to be alright. 

They remained like that for a while, Eren becoming comfortable with his hand threaded in Levi’s hair and his mouth up against his ear, the human shaking with his cries slowly decreasing in volume and force. 

The man suddenly detached himself from the mermaid and rubbed his eyes, gripping onto the shoe as if it was worth more than life itself; which he almost believed. “We should probably go back up, it's sunrise soon.” He muttered, looking back up at the mermaid. 

Eren took Levi’s hand with no negative reaction from the human, and left the boat to swim at a gentle pace back up to their cave. It felt like longer than the first time for Eren, forcing himself not to look at the man gripping onto him at the worry he himself may break down at the sight of the beautiful man crying with so much pain flowing through his body at finding that little shoe. 

They finally reached their rockpool, breaking to the surface once again. Instead of climbing onto the rocks this time, however, Levi remained in the water. He gently placed the shoe on a rock next to him and leaned back against the rocks, his body facing the general direction he knew the sun would be rising in very shortly. 

The mermaid looked at the human with concern written all over his face, shifting himself to lean against the man’s shoulder and slowly and gently as he could. Levi was still surprised by the contact, but grew used to it quite quickly again and boldly placed an arm around Eren’s back to get more comfortable. “I’m sorry, Eren.”

“None of that, captain. I understand how hard this is for you. I’m just sorry that I can’t do more for you.” He murmured, rubbing his head against the man’s neck and shoulder in an attempt to comfort him

“You’ve done wonderfully, Eren.” He sighed, resting his head against Eren’s. 

The sun began to rise in front of them in that moment, the sky burning a deep orange, almost setting the ocean alight with colour. “Isn’t it beautiful?” Eren asked, his voice lilted with pure hoy. 

Levi hummed, he had of course seen the sunrise countless times before, but sitting next to the mermaid who seemed overwhelmingly overjoyed at the concept of the sunrise made his heart hammer in his chest. He looked down at the man, his face split into a huge grin, and looked back up at the sunrise, allowing his own small smile to form. “It truly is.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hello allll  
> I will probably eventually write future chapters to this fic, but I just urgently needed to post this. I hope you all enjoyed it, and u stick around if and when I update this in the future. 
> 
> Thanks for reading :) 
> 
> ig - @regular___john  
> Tumblr - regular-john-16278  
> Discord - regular_john#4033


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